


if it's not you,

by Miss Hiraya (Miss_Hiraya)



Category: SB19 (Band)
Genre: 30 random prompts, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Domesticity, English dialogues, Fluff, Hints of abuse, M/M, Sejosh - Freeform, i return for SeJosh dads!ship, snippets of life, soulmates?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:09:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29837913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Hiraya/pseuds/Miss%20Hiraya
Summary: “In this world, you are born without colors. Only when you meet your soulmate will you see them.Josh has always had his colors. Jun did not get his even after meeting the love of his life, and yet he still insists anyway.”- SeJosh, 30 Random Words Self-Challenge
Relationships: John Paulo Nase | Sejun/Josh Cullen Santos
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	if it's not you,

**Author's Note:**

> Tried something. Again. I asked on twt some random words and had to pick them from a bowl for their sequence. I hope it worked out.
> 
> This was supposed to be posted on SeJosh motmot, but the bunny gave up on it halfway. Probably gave her a scare. She still has tantrums.

**#1: Agony**

The first is realizing that the world is too bright. While others have wonder in their eyes and thrill in their hearts, Josh already has his answers. It was here. It has arrived. And he was not there to catch it. And he did not know its importance until he is years too late.

The second is feeling his own heart fall, because those eyes are like the others. One who has not seen colors their entire life. Josh mourns, because Jun has never seen such explicit beauty his entire life. How upsetting is it that Jun cannot see himself in the mirror the way Josh does? The rich earth of his own eyes, the rose on his cheeks, the pearl on his skin, the night on his hair-

The third is meeting those earthen eyes full of wonder, his own heart thrumming like erratic fireworks. _“Mine,”_ they say. They sound so sure, it hurts. They look so bright, it burns.

The fourth is knowing Jun looks like someone's entire world, one that is not Josh. For their eyes have met, and Josh has his colors while Jun still did not gain his.

* * *

  
**#2: Human**

_“Life is short”_ , he says. Josh could not agree more. Being mortal is being fragile and weak, and a fleeting existence in the grand scheme of universe.

 _“Not that, silly.”_ Jun calls Josh silly like how a god calls mortals endearingly, “ _Life is short. So, baby just say yes~”_

Jun sings. He likes that. He likes to sing to Josh and more. He makes Josh cringe with his almost laughable ways to make Josh blush. But even then, he makes Josh feel worthy in ways nobody has ever done.

“Why, are you tired?” Josh asks, hopes he answers yes. Life is short, Jun should not be stopping on his way to meet the person who will show him colors. 

_“Never.”_ He smiles. 

Josh's life is short, and he is weak and fragile to forces of nature. So Josh falls, a little bit more, every time for that _sophomore from the other section who always brings a guitar_ 's smile.

* * *

  
**#3: Bed**

Late nights make Josh feel scared of iron fists and broken bottles. But when he thinks of roses and pearls, sun and vanilla, the pain seems to be dreams away so he holds onto them.

Darkness makes Josh think of night-woven hair, how they frame earthen eyes and crown a head full of wit and eccentric ideas. 

He is no poet, but Jun makes him think of impossible things anyway, makes him believe that there is more to mechanisms in the world dictating who gets lucky and not.

Jun makes him think of gambling against fates, and maybe a distant future where he is left alone afte the temporary bliss- what's one more pain, right? - but Jun makes Josh think more of the bliss instead of the temporary.

This is when he knows he should say _yes_.

* * *

  
**#4: Tight**

Jun's grip is strong, stronger than the pain in Josh's insides with each jagged word directed at him.

His bones could crush at the sheer force of it, and Josh would gladly submit himself to it. It is safety. It is acceptance he will never get from his parent the moment Josh saw the fire in her eyes. Jun does not ask when he comes to school wearing bruises, but he does grip Josh's entire being with all those lanky limbs could.

And it is not home, not yet. They are only seniors graduating in a few months, and home is not yet a feature to their budding relationship. But it is security and comfort Josh could ever ask for.

* * *

  
**#5: Terus**

“”What comes after?”

Jun looks up, and he has this wide-eyed, caught-off guard look, innocence splayed in broad daylight. He is trying to find a way to fit the three squidballs in his mouth in the same way he tries to solve a puzzle _. “Of what?”_

“Of us?” 

He shrugs, so nonchalant and clueless. Josh could be angry, at him for not knowing and for himself for asking. Josh could be afraid, of whatever happens to them, of all their plans, and of the day when Jun realizes Josh is not the one he wants after all.

Or Josh could be content, at the feeling of the other's leg sticking closer to him, nudging his own share of the streetfood wordlessly.

Josh could answer it for himself, the question.

When Jun dances in the middle of the hallway, more excited than Josh is for receiving that scholarship grant he sorely needed, Josh answers another question.

Jun takes several seconds when their lips met. Josh smiles anyway. 

It could be enough.

* * *

**#6: Sincere**

Josh stares at the bouquet of flowers. It has got to be the ugliest arrangement that exists, if that was even possible. The one who gives it to him smiles widely, plants a kiss on his forehead so easily like the truths in the world.

And Josh can't possibly help the smile on his own face that reflects his boyfriend's bracketed ones. “What's this?”

 _“Flowers! I picked all of them by myself!”_ Josh listens to the short story of Jun trying to get his way instead of following the florist's suggestions. In the language of flowers, this bouquet probably is a chaotic mess. But they looked pretty, or so Jun insisted.

“It's atrocious.” Josh laughs, but he spends all the time in the world in describing each color in the bunch. They were all so bright, so lively, and Josh wishes Pablo could see just how much color he gives freely to Josh's monochrome life.

_“Happy Anniversary!”_

They share one order from their favorite fast food chain, inside their cramped dorm room, in the middle of a city that they moved into for their university dreams. 

* * *

  
**#7: Epiphany**

To Josh, there is no sudden realization. It feels like it has always been there, unspoken yet very real. It fills up the spaces of everywhere they go together, and makes Josh's world turn around like it had not before. Josh notices, but does not always say it.

 _“God, I love you so much,”_ Josh hears the surprise in those words anyway, as if every time is a discovery to Jun. 

“Yes, yes. Go heat the pan and leave the knife work to me.”

_“My hero.”_

* * *

  
**#8: Watermelon**

  
This time, it's Josh at the receiving end of those deep earthen eyes simmering in anger. They stare unimpressedly at him, most especially at the big, heavy plastic in his hand.

Summer makes Jun smell more like the sun and less than vanilla. He does not mind. He loves snuggling to him even when they are both dying in sweltering heat.

“They ran out of ice cream.”

They shoot seeds to the distance like some childish competition, knees to shoulders pressed together woth slick sweat. Jun complains but does not scoot away.

Not even when Josh licks the juice from the corner of the other's lips. Not even when they part ways that evening, one going to work and the other studying for the upcoming midterms.

* * *

  
**#9: Somnambulist**

_“No, I did not.”_ Jun rolls his eyes and eats his brunch with a little more flare than it should have. 

Josh laughs, reaches out to ruffle the mess of a hair anyway. “It's quite alright. I like to know you still dream of me.”

Jun looks up, mildly offended. Nose scrunched and brows together and all that, “ _What? You think I don't? I daydream of you, everyday.”_

“T-that's not the point, but okay..” Josh wants to strangle the man. He makes things look so easy, so simple, like how fast he makes Josh blush to the tips of his toes, or

how Jun declares sappy, cringy things when they're both still in pajamas, fresh out of a week-long college blender;

or how he makes Josh hope that he will always be close enough when Jun seeks him out in his sleep. Just so he won't bump into doors and fall down the stairs, really.

* * *

  
**#10: Sweven**

Jun picks up a pencil and paper from his own stash and proceeds to create another set of sounds to mingle with Josh's typing on his borrowed laptop. Josh does not exactly mind, even if he is rushing to meet deadlines for the semester. The miscellaneous sounds are better than the midnight silence. 

When Jun is done, Josh is only halfway through his work. It is still going to be a long night, but Josh only needs that steady weight on his side- whether it be Jun's head on his lap while trying to memorize technical terms, or Jun's constant support that always pushed him forward.

The drawing stays on their bedroom wall, a grogeous rough sketch of a bigger house and two owners in the form of poorly-drawn stick figures. It's as good as any motivation.

* * *

  
**#11: Serendipity**

Josh is drunk and Jun has to haul twice a man's weight. Jun makes no shortage of grunts and complaints as they stumble through the flight of stairs. “ _You are not getting that drunk again, Josh_.”

“D'you remember? Hahah- when we met?” 

Apparently drinking forces people to be nostalgic. Jun answers even as he balances Josh's weight on one side and the keys to their apartment on another. _“ '12, hah. You were looking for the dogtag you lost when we exchanged classrooms.”_

“Yeap, and 'found it!” The old chain from their high school days now dangle between their rumpled shirts and unsteady gait. Josh catches the metal, tracing the edges dulled through the years. The he traces the curve of the other's Adam's apple, the peek of collarbone where the chain rests, and then the light stubble on his chin. “ _Oy, I'm ticklish_.”

“…'nd then I found you, didn't I?” Josh muses, poking the other's cheek now.

Or was it the other way around? Josh does not think further before he passes out. Two weeks later, Josh passes the board exams for teaching. Jun is the one that drags them to the bar to celebrate.

* * *

  
**#12: Hotdog**

“Come back to bed.” The bed grouch complains from under the mess of sheets. Josh is not human during early morning hours, Jun knows that- should know that after living together for more than a decade now. And he is not a creature to be satisfied until his human body pillow comes back to bed.

 _“Get up. We're doing laundry today, sir.”_ Jun rolls his eyes, throws a thin, long pillow at the obvious bedhead of his partner.

Nobody answers. “ _Fine_.” There's silence until Josh feels soft fur sliding against his nape. Oh, it feels familiar but wait-

“Jun!” Hotdog's tail pokes his nose when he turns in sharp indignation. Their orange tabby has never looked so smug from Josh's point of view half-buried in the cat's balls.

_“Hotdog says good morning!”_

“Ugh, morning-”

 _“After that, you're gonna help me with my new story. Please?”_ Josh rubs his face on their pillow, relishing the last comforts of sleep. Jun thinks Josh is that muse who makes colors understandable to him. Josh tries to disagree, but a whole community of readers who praise the author's explicit ways of describing tone and hues backs Jun's claims.

So, really there was no need to ask. Josh is just happy to help his boyfriend even if said boyfriend sits their pet cat on his face to wake up.

* * *

  
**#13: Dagitab (Tag. for "Spark")**

Jun moans and groans around his heat, sharing bliss in the most intimate way possible. He always says how tight and hot Josh is in these moments, mouth out of filter knowing how it makes Josh blush and clamp down harder.

They have done this for so many times that Josh lost count. Anytime, anywhere too. And everytime, he feels them both burning in each kiss, embrace, sound, _thrust,_ tremble. Everytime, Josh gets lost in that flame, and maybe Jun is right. Maybe Jun feels that tight heat because Josh himself feels himself burning, bright and loud and alive, everytime they make love. And if Josh is fire, then Jun is his precedent. His beginning.

It is so easy to forget that Jun still has not seen colors, as if a ticking bomb for Josh to anticipate. So easy, because Jun burns every anxiety that lingers until nothing but bliss and certainty remains. 

So easy, that when Jun takes him, brings him to the peak until he is seeing whitehot supernovas, and whispers “ _Mine, mine”_ \- Josh echoes the same word in the same intensity until he loses breath in his lungs.

* * *

  
**#14: Flowers**

They are white, and they are the only ones Josh brings more than decade later, back to their hometown filled with memories of both good and bad. They are placed in front of a lone grave, beside a lit candle. Jun touches him with one large palm on his trembling back, and holds him until he stops breaking to pieces.

Jun does not ask their color this time. It might be the only time his gray vision fits the world at the moment. He just sits there next to Josh, as he always had done through the years.

Josh had wanted to ask, if his mother was any proud even if he never ended up a soldier like his father. He had wanted to ask if he made her any proud at all- even if he never ended up just the way she wanted. The thought only makes the skies grayer, so he pushes it down.

It does not matter anymore. The dead don't talk.

* * *

  
**#15: Transcendence**

They don't say it to his face, but he knows. Jun's parents don't exactly approve. They are traditional, and they only love their so much that they think of his welfare all the time. Even now. 

Josh is no bum. He is a college professor. Jun is an author to two bestseller fiction series by now. And it's not the matter of genders too, thank God for that. Josh sees no malice in their intent to make his son happy. And it makes their unspoken disapproval (in passing glances, and sad smiles) hard to fight. Because in all honesty? He sides with them.

He still does, sometimes. When they argue about it now though, gone are the yells and harsh words. Josh has lost all reason to give Jun to leave, and Jun has lost most of his ill-temper. 

Now, when they catch glances and see the storm in Josh's eyes, Jun holds both his hands. His entire being. “ _If it's not you, it's not anyone.”_

And Josh breathes like a man who almost drowned at sea. He holds Jun tighter, just like how Jun asks of him. It's all they need to do. Damn everything else, Josh thinks. 

* * *

  
**#16: Nexus**

  
Jun blinks. Josh blinks back. Between the two of them having a staredown in their kitchen, Hotdog purrs between his dads, pushing his head and rubbing himself against hairy legs. Everything stills, like everything else in the world is inside the eye of a storm.

“This is not the way I wanted to propose, I promise.” Josh blurts out, because it is true.

But he does anyway, stupidly so, because Sunday morning had them lounging in the middle of their mess of papers- three fourths from Josh's students, one fourth from Jun's story drafts. On the floor, Sunday had Jun scribbling and on his stomach, and Josh sitting up cross legged and pushing his reading glasses up to read chicken scratch from his student. Jun gave up first, tugging his boyfriend to the kitchen to eat.

And this Sunday makes a thought come to Josh so fast and hard, that it's all he blurts out in the kitchen as they wash dishes.

* * *

  
**#17: Sonder**

  
Jun blinks again. The third time has him biting his trembling lip. 

“You.. Don't want to?”

Maybe, after all, this is the day Jun tells him he wants to see colors. Which is fine to Josh, even if it makes him swallow broken glass. It was just a silly thought after all; them surpassing all odds and all years of caring, hating, and then loving each other when they aren't written in the stars anyway.

Someone out there, he realizes not for the first time, lives in a grayscale world unlike his. Their life could be so much more, like how Jun makes his life so vivid and meaningful. He realizes that it's because he's been so happy all those years having Jun, that someone out there is deprived of that right.

* * *

  
**#18: Revolution**

Jun laughs, wet and fragile, wiping tears out of his own eyes. “ _Did you even have a ring yet_.”

Josh grins, the world spinning in its axis like it had stopped just moments before. Gravity pulls him inward, making him encircle his arms around the center of his universe. 

Josh twines his fingers together and rests them on the small of Jun's back. “There you go. Big enough to fit all of you, too.” 

He does so surely, more securely because Jun is crying and blushing to the tips of his hair, silencing every voice in the cruel world that dictates about soulmates and destinies. 

* * *

  
**#19: Mellifluous**

“Say yes?”

  
Jun answers by kissing him until he's breathless, sat atop the kitchen counter, tasting mangoes and vinegar, tears, and sweet laughter on their tongues.

* * *

  
**#20: Hiraeth**

Josh wonders somewhere in a universe, there exists a timeline that parallels the one he is in, except that this time Jun is written in the stars next to his name.

What home would they have built? Probably one that's color-schemed, for one. Would it be filled of the same laughter, same curious voice asking what color are any of the random things Jun brings home? Would it have the same warmth? Would it be perfect?

Would Jun glow differently in his eyes? Would Jun love him the same in all his colors?

He imagines. And each time, he looks to the other to find reality. And the yearning is gone just as fast as it had come.

* * *

**#21: Sojourn**

The first night they spend with simple golden bands on their ring fingers, Josh gets lifted off his feet at the doorstep. He yells, pinches the flesh of his husband's neck, and he gets dumped on their bed.

“Is this your way of saying you've been going to the gym these past days?”

“ _Not at all. Oh, well_ ” Jun slithers between his legs, predator-like in his gaze locking unto him. “ _If you want to christen a gym too, I can arrange that._ ”

Josh raises an eyebrow, even as his eyes deepens in lust. “We have christened all corners of this home long before, Jun.” 

_“Not as my husband, nope.”_

Home. He said home. This has been where they laid their roots since some years ago after moving out of their college dorm, and now Josh calls it home. Not flat, or unit. Not something so temporary. “Mm, I can't wait.”

 _“To which one?_ ”

Josh tugs the other's head down so he can lick the shell of his ear, “Both.”

* * *

  
**#22: Shallow**

_“Come on, trust me?”_

Josh would rather not look directly towards Jun's face who is pouting and asking him of trivial things. “I do trust you.” 

_“I'll give you lessons, free for senior citizens.”_ Jun pokes at his age again even though they are literally only months apart. It is such an old joke that it has turned into some degree of gold. Not that he'll tell Jun that.

Josh shakes his head, flounders for a bit to reach for Jun's hand underwater. “I don't want to.”

_“Eh? You have to! It's a necessity!”_

“So is seeing which color is the traffic light, silly.” 

Jun only takes a second to figure it out, and he laughs, splashes saltwater to Josh's face but swims closer to him anyway. 

“Let me need you this way, Jun.” Josh asks, cheeky smile on his face because Jun turns beet red with those words. Jun kisses his bare shoulder, showing he understands. Because if Jun can refuse anybody but Josh to tell him about colors, then Josh can reserve the spot of saving him if he drowns to Jun.

* * *

  
**#23: Sarang (Kor. for "Love")**

It's like explaining colors to Jun, except this time, it is a language they both built up from scratch.

It's making room, always, no matter what, in spaces one occupies (the bed, the spot near the counter, sink, sofa, seat, and anything else in between) like an invitation to their special, personal bubbles.

It's leaving coffee for Jun when he goes deep into his drafts, and keeping the curtains closed, noises minimum, when Jun's migraines visit. It may also be Josh bodily pulling Jun by the waist, away from his work, when he thinks it's enough. And when they argue half-heartedly about it, Jun letting Josh win.

It's remembering which pens Josh liked to buy even when Jun forgets nearly all other important dates. It's teasing about white hairs, spending an afternoon of pulling them out; or Jun putting Josh's glasses safely to the side so he can remember to relax, or so they can do something _else._ It's dancing in the hallway when Josh got his scholarship, and it's singing when Josh needs to sleep but can't.

It's leaving the house when they get heated, returning a few hours later when they have cooled down. It's leaving spaces for each other, no matter what, even when their presence is not even pleasant at the moment. Because they'll return, eventually, and they know it to be true.

* * *

  
**#24: Liger**

“ _Great! I'll find her contact!”_

Josh backpedals on the conversation, blinking rapidly from the latest book Jun has published. He always had the first copy, after all. Jun is already leaning over to reach the phone by their bedside. “Wait. We were talking about cats, weren't we?”

Jun slumps across his lap. They meet gazes, Jun grinning and Josh confused. _“Nope. Kids, Josh. We were talking about kids.”_

“Oh..” And then, “Wait. Jun!”

_“What?”_

“What do you mean what?” Josh pinches his husband's side, earning him a yelp. “How? Can we even raise a child right??”

_“Didn't you like to have a crowded house?”_

“That's- That was me probably half-asleep? And totally not the point?” What are they going to end up raising, anyway? Him and Jun are different people and can barely agree on which cat food was best for Hotdog. A child? A living, breathing walking on two legs, looking like them kind of child?

“ _Relax_ ,” Jun reaches out to pat his cheek. Josh caves in just very slightly. “ _Pretty sure we can work nicely as a pair. We always did._ ” Jun says, so surely, certainly just like that day he declared Josh was his against all of universe. 

_“ But only if you want it, too.”_ And Josh caves in even more.

* * *

  
**#25: Smirk**

It starts with one, “Papa, I can't sleep.”

Josh makes room for their youngest baby, pushes off the covers and his husband who's been hugging him like an octopus. “Jun, scoot over.”

And then another, “Papa? Dada?” from the door, from their sweet middle child. The third time comes not a full minute later and it's their second youngest, shyly dragging his favorite stuffed rabbit.

Jun grunts, eyes stubbornly closed as he drags the covers back to their three visitors. One wrong move and he'll be on the cold ground, but Josh is faring no better. It's quite alright if someone else's suffers with him. Then, two sets of footsteps come inside. Thankfully, their eldest remembers to close the door quietly. He's going away to a camp in his high school tomorrow though, so Josh wonders why on earth he's still up. His twin has no excuse though, so it's probably just on a matter of principle.

“ _Get a comforter from the closet_.” Jun warns huskily, not even opening his eyes to see that their eldest twins had joined in the sleepover and were already trying to get acquainted with the wooden floor. “The thick one,” Josh adds.

“Okay..” the twins chorus silently.

When Jun deigns to open his eyes, it's to glare at Josh who's watching the entire thing with mirth in his lips. Josh just mouths, “You signed up for this.”

* * *

  
**#26: Fall**

They raise their children as if they came from their own. Three of them adopted, and two of them born by surrogacy, but they are theirs. 

And the days stretched out like a long spring, where their flowers bloom and the sun smiles down on them. There are many days when storms hit, and the stems have to take deeper roots for the sake of five. But in the end of it all, the flowers grow steadily, wonderfully. Jun hopes they have done enough. Josh takes his side and squeezes his wrinkling hand.

When their flowers eventually ventured out into the world, seeking and finding their spaces and soils to take root in, they watch and bid them a warm farewell. 

“We are not getting another cat, Jun.”

Jun chuckles in the same vibrant laugh that paints the world in vivid hues, and the crows feet in the corner of his eyes make themselves more known. _“Fine. Squidball is fine playing on her own, anyway. But, it's been a long time since I asked you out on a date so…”_

The flowers Jun brings are still in a dizzying multicolors, but he picked them from their garden, and it's a nice date outside. Josh is happy to spend the rest of his autumn days with this sap. 

* * *

  
**#27: Persona**

Josh is "sir Santos" until he is "sir Santos-Nase". He is "Cullen" in the days Jun wants to be particularly annoying. He is "Joshua" to his mother on a good day, and "nothing" in her worst days. He is "'nak" to his parents-in-law who had come to accept him through time. He is "Kuya" to Jun's siblings. He is "Papa" to their five kids, their most favorite person in the world. He is "Josh" to everyone else. He is also "Josh", a combination of all of those names in one utterance but unlike everyone else, he is everything to Jun.

Jun is "Sejun" in his works, and he is "Paulo" to everyone else. He is "Paupau" to his parents on any time of the year and on any age, and "Kuya Pau" to his siblings. He is "John" when Josh wants to get under his skin. He is "Dada" to their five children, and he is also their most favorite person in the world. Still, he is "Jun", the meaning to every color, the reason, heart and soul, and he is everything to Josh.

They don't need endearment to add to those names, they just call each other's name and say it like one. And it's not just because they're getting older than most; it's just been like that since day one.

* * *

  
**#28: Ojala**

The sun is setting. He does not tell Jun that this particular sunset is dull, duller than any gray and stormy sky they have shared over the years. 

Instead, Josh calls him softly. It lights up the sun in Jun's eyes, and it makes the same smile Josh has loved appear on his face. It makes Jun reach out, wrinkly and unsteady hand, to twine with Josh's own. His hold is weak now, but his heat is in the same intensity. The sunset pales so easily in comparison to his explicit beauty.

“I hope, in the next life, you'll find the one for you.” Josh jokes softly, inwardly praying the same words fervently. Jun has been the meaning to all the colors of his life, and it is quite time for his beloved to find his. They have defied the heavens and fates for so long after all.

Jun chuckles, not anymore enough force to reverberate along the walls of their home, but it shakes Josh's brittling bones all the same. “ _Don't worry. I'll find you again.”_

The night sky has arrived when the man of Josh's life left the world. When the colors grayed and left with Jun, Josh wished so desperately that Jun could have taken him along, too.

* * *

  
**#29: Meraki**

Jun leaves him with his voice recordings, each meticulously preserved through the years in a memory drive. Some of it, songs Jun sang for the hell of it, some voice messages from their long years, some songs that Josh knew were for him. Some were audiobooks of Jun's, some from other books that Jun read and recorded for him. They're almost stories on their own, not unlike the books Jun has written in his entire career now stashed like precious treasures in their shelf. 

And it makes mourning a bit more painful. 

Jun has poured his soul, his heart into the spaces of their shared life. When he went away, Josh's universe faded to gray literally and figuratively, too.

But Jun had left him voice recordings, pieces of their lives to hold on to until Josh finds his last sunset too. 

Jun had also left him with their five kids. They are all grown up and making their own homes now, but they remain their children all the same. All of them, Josh and Jun poured their lives into, and now they make their parents the proudest everyday.

They make longing less difficult.

* * *

  
**#30: Time**

  
The windows are open, welcoming the first ray of sunlight and letting it paint the walls of an old bedroom. Each corner has a story to tell, each surface, each object meticulously placed in random places. Morning shines down on them, and it kisses the pale, faintly smiling lips and closed eyes of one man in the middle of the bed that was meant for two.

Morning comes and Josh leaves just minutes before it. Barely nineteen days since Jun went ahead, Josh follows. 

Their five children bury him next to his husband and soulmate, and they bid their parents a warm farewell. And to their own children, they will tell the story of one boy who has his colors since birth, another who has never seen one, and how in the end they were written in the stars after all. It's a love story that did not rely in magic and fate, and it was fought for tirelessly. It is a story they will tell their children, with proud smiles on their faces, hoping it stays remembered for a long, long while.

**Author's Note:**

> SeJosh lubog? Pffft. Not in my house, no ma'am.


End file.
